Beyond the boundaries of established science an avalanche of exotic ideas compete for our attention. Experts tell us that these ideas should not be permitted to take up the time of working scientists, and for the most part they are surely correct. But what about the gems in the rubble pile? By what ground-rules might we bring extraordinary new possibilities to light?

If we postulate that the criteria for becoming a Birkeland node are that it must possess the following three properties:A magentic field.A conductive coreSpin.

Then we are describing the properties of both an electric motor and generator.

I practical, everyday term we can distinguish between the motor and generator by looking at the inputs and outputs.

A diesel generator, for instance, is obviously a generator because it uses a diesel enging to turn a shaft connected to an armuture rotating inside a magnetic field to output electricity. This process cannot be reversed to use eletrical energy input to produce diesel fuel output.

Similarly a toy car uses batteries to power an electric motor which drives the wheels to move the toy car. Again this process doesn’t work in reverse if you rotate the wheels to turn the motor to charge the batteries.

However in modern Formula 1 racing cars are set up so that the same equipment can, at different points on a lap, be either a motor or generator. At some points the on-board batteries will be used to drive the eletric motor which adds power to the wheels. At other points the kinetic energy of the car will use the wheels to turn the generator to re-charge the on-board batteries.

Taking the Earth as an example, we have all the components necessary for both a motor and generator but it isn’t obvious which are the inputs and which are the outputs.

Does the Bireland current form the input to the motor thus causing the Earth’s spin or does the Earth’s spin form the input to the generator resulting in Birkeland currents?

As an interesting aside not all planets in the Solar Sytem have magnetic fields. Venus and Mars are the exceptions, so from the above criteria we should be able to predict that Venus and Mars have no Birkeland currents associated with them.

From what I remember from high school physics a body will continue in motion unless it has a counter acting force applied to it.

So I think on balance that I would tend towards thinking that the Earth is a generator rather than a motor. This also answers a question that has puzzled me as to the source of Birkeland currents and the answer is: Every celestial body that has the three criteria above.

So, some speculations here and a couple of of testable ideas concerning Venus and Mars.

At first the Earth was rotating as an electrostatic motor, magma was made, and now it is rotating as a Faraday motor.Electrostatic motors are birkerand currents.But the Faraday motor is the current created by the electrons inside the earth.

The earth's magnetic field is a magnetic field generated by the large amount of electrons stored in rocks under the crust with angular acceleration due to rotation.

Jupiter's satellite Io is synchronized with revolution and rotation. Because negative charges are gathered on the surface of the atmospheric Io, only one side is attracted to the plus of Jupiter atmosphere. This phenomenon is the same as the moon on the earth.

I concur. Now in the case of Io, it generates current that is directed into Jupiter in a circuit. What I would love to know is...how much would be directed into Earth if there were a similar situation here. To me, a very important question. What formula could be used to determine this. For example, factoring our nearnes to the sun compared to Jupiter/Io and how large and close to the planet a "moon" would be?